e, and threw her arms around the
coffin, resting her cheek on that of her husband, while the hot tears
ran in large drops down its marble surface. One who thought he had a
right to interfere, whispered in her ear, and took hold of an arm to
draw her away, but she turned fiercely upon him.

"Who are you," she said, "to separate me from my husband? Go--I will
keep him as long as I please."

The person, seeing her determination, desisted; and all looked on in
mournful silence.

"O, Josiah," she sobbed, "who'd have thought it! The best, the kindest
husband a woman ever had. O! how sorry I am for every hard word I ever
spoke to you. And you so good--never to find fault when I scolded.
I was wicked--and yet all the time I loved you so. Did you know it,
Josiah? If you were back again, how different I would treat you! The
fire should always be burning bright, and the hearth clean, when you
came back cold from fishing, and you should never, never ask me a
second time for anything. But you don't hear me. What's the use
of crying and lamenting? Here," she said, raising herself up, and
addressing those next her, "take him, and put him in his grave."

She staggered and fainted, and would have fallen, had she not been
caught in the arms of sympathizing friends, who removed her into the
adjoining chamber, and applied the usual restoratives. This caused
some little delay, but, after a time, the person who had assumed upon
himself the arrangements of the funeral, entered, preceding the four
bearers, whose hats he took into his own hands, to restore them to the
owners when the coffin should be placed in the hearse--a plain black
wagon, with black cloth curtains--waiting at the door. The coffin was
taken up by them, and deposited accordingly; after which, they took
their places in front of the hearse, while the four pall-bearers
ranged themselves on each side. At a signal from the director of the
ceremony, the whole moved forward, leaving space for the carriages
to approach the door. Mr. Armstrong's carriage was driven up, and the
widow and children, with two or three females, were assisted in. Then
followed a few other vehicles, with the nearest relatives, after whom
came others, as they pleased to join. A large number of persons had
previously formed themselves into a procession before the hearse,
headed by the minister, who would have been accompanied by a
physician, had one assisted in making poor Sill's passage to the other
worl